Tostitos at the Super Bowl

They may not be getting a Super Bowl ad this year, but

Tostitos will be getting plenty of camera time.

The PepsiCo brand will go for the unofficial record for a live

stream of a tortilla chip bowl, set out in the brand’s cantina

at the game in Atlanta.

A live stream camera will focus on the bowl for 53 hours, from

1:29 pm ET on February 1 to 6:29 pm on Game Day, February 3.

"This might be the most exciting thing to hit the Super Bowl

marketing scene in a decade, maybe ever…or maybe not at

all," said Sheldon Boyea, senior director of marketing, Tostitos,

the Super Bowl’s official chip and dip sponsor.

Droll commentary aside, the brand offers hope of at least a

few moments of interest, courtesy of appearances by current

and former NFL stars, including Barry Sanders, Dak Prescott,

Matt Ryan, Baker Mayfield and Tony Gonzalez.

Apple Games

Apple is planning a subscription service for games, according

to five people familiar with the matter.

The service would function like Netflix for games, allowing

users who pay a subscription fee to access a bundled list of

titles. Apple ($AAPL) began privately discussing a subscription

service with game developers in the second half of 2018, said

the people, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss

unannounced plans.

It’s unclear how much the subscription will cost or what kind of

games Apple will offer. The service is still in the early stages of

development, and Apple could ultimately decide to abandon it.

The company has also discussed partnering with developers as

a publisher, according to two people familiar with the talks, which

could signal Apple’s ambition to assume distribution, marketing,

and other related costs for select games.

5G Smart Cars

The next generation of wireless data communications is

called 5G because it succeeds older protocols. Most of the

current discussion about 5G concerns your phone and other

mobile devices. Because 5G can bring up to 20 Gbps data

speeds to your devices, it enables a better experience.

What might get lost in the noise is that 5G is also going to

enable automakers, governments, and the aftermarket to put

smarter, more connected vehicles on the road through

Cellular Vehicle-to-Anything (C-V2X) communications.

“We announced our 9150 C-V2X chipset in September 2017,”

said Maged Zaki, director of technical marketing at Qualcomm.

“Since then, we have done about 20 trials globally, in the US,

Europe, China, Korea, and Japan. I worked with most of the

automakers on the trials, and Ford just announced that it will

release 5G C-V2X in cars starting in 2022. That’s a big win for

us. Also, we think we’ll get huge traction in China because

China is building new infrastructure that will use the technology.”

MSFT Does It Again

MSFT is planning to end support for the Windows phone

it once championed as a potential iPhone, BlackBerry and

Galaxy killer.

On Friday, the tech giant announced that anyone who still

uses its Windows 10 mobile platform — once called Windows

Phone — should switch over to an iPhone or an Android phone.

A change to the Windows 10 Mobile support page was first

spotted by Thurrott, a site that covers Microsoft.

Microsoft said that on Dec. 10, 2019, it will stop sending “new

security updates, non-security hotfixes, free assisted support

options, or technical content updates from Microsoft for free.”

In other words, there aren’t going to be any more updates, and

only a few phone models will even be supported until that final

Date.

“With the Windows 10 Mobile OS end of support, we recommend

that customers move to a supported Android or iOS device,”

Microsoft said. “Microsoft’s mission statement to empower every

person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,

compels us to support our Mobile apps on those platforms and

devices.”

Samsung S10

That new leak lines up with previous leaks. As you can

see on the photo, the new devices don’t have a notch.

They feature a hole-punch selfie camera instead. If you’re

looking for the fingerprint sensor, Samsung could choose

to embed it in the screen.

Just like in previous years, in addition to the main S10,

there will be a bigger version of the device — the S10+.

On this photo, you can see that the bigger version has

two selfie cameras instead of one.

But the S10E is a new addition to the lineup. Samsung is

launching a more affordable version of the S10 at the

same time as the S10. The S10E features two cameras

on the back instead of three for instance. I wouldn’t be

surprised if the S10E had an LCD display instead of an

AMOLED display as well.

Samsung plans to unveil the Galaxy S10 at an event in

San Francisco on February 20. We’ll have a team on the

ground to tell you more about the device.

Another LONG Weekend

Happy MLK Day to all!

MSFT Windows News

Microsoft is working on adapting Windows to work on

foldable devices. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans

tell The Verge that the software maker is making foldable

devices and dual-screen hardware a big investment area

for both Windows and Surface. This investment includes

adapting Windows itself and its many built-in apps to work

across foldable displays and devices with dual screens.

While Microsoft has been experimenting with its own

hardware with dual-screens, codenamed Andromeda,

the company has also been working with Intel and other

OEMs to be ready for the next few years of experimentation.

PC makers famously developed a range of 2-in-1 devices for

Windows 8 more than five years ago, and we’re expecting to

see a similar effort for dual-screen and foldable devices for

Windows in the coming years.

Most of this work is related to Microsoft’s Composable Shell

(C-Shell) and Windows Core OS, a more modular version of

the existing Windows Shell that powers many parts of Windows

10 today. The first Windows 10 build (rs_shell_devices_

foldables) designed for foldable devices was spotted earlier this

week, revealing that Microsoft has a dedicated team working on

adapting its Windows shell for this new hardware. This should

come as no surprise to many Windows watchers, as Microsoft

has been gradually integrating more of its dual-screen work into

early Windows 10 builds in recent months.

We’ve only seen Microsoft’s secretive Windows Core OS work

appear on devices like the Surface Hub 2 so far, but hardware

like HoloLens 2 should also start to reveal more of how this new

modular Windows push will play out. Dual-screen and foldable

devices won’t be limited to Intel, either. Expect to see a range

of devices from PC makers that include ARM-powered chips.

Here Comes Apple!

After failing to meet its own shipping timeline in 2018,

Apple is now thought to have two manufacturers ramping

up production of its AirPower wireless charging pad,

according to a Hong Kong-based website that specializes

in device charging news.

As first reported by MacRumors, the website ChargerLAB

tweeted out this morning that it had "just learned from credible

source in supply chain" that Chinese manufacturer Luxshare

Precision has begun manufacturing the AirPower multi-device

wireless charger. ChargerLAB followed its initial tweet with

another claiming a second Apple supplier, Pegatron, will begin

manufacturing AirPower chargers on Jan. 21.

ChargerLab cited a Pegatron employee who said AirPower

will have three layers of copper wireless charging coils, in an

"8-7-7" configuration from bottom to top, which will enable it to

charge an an iPhone 8 or iPhone X, an Apple Watch Series 3

or 4 and AirPods via the charging case.

NY Times Audio

The New York Times is expanding further into audio with

five new offerings for Amazon.com Inc.’s speakers,

including a shorter version of its hit podcast, “The Daily.”

Starting Friday, “The Daily” will produce a news briefing

on weekdays for the Amazon Echo, a voice-enabled

speaker with a built-in assistant named Alexa. The free

news briefing will be sponsored by the carmaker Audi

and be read by host Michael Barbaro.

The 167-year-old paper is trying to rely less on print while

seeking new forms of digital distribution. The new programs

also let the company capitalize on booming sales of smart

speakers -- devices that include Google Home and Apple

HomePod. Last week, Amazon said it has sold more than

100 million products with Alexa built in.

“The Daily” podcast takes a deep dive into a specific news

topic and typically runs about 20 minutes. The new briefing,

in contrast, will only be about three minutes. Owners of

Amazon speakers can start it by saying “Alexa, enable the

New York Times briefing.”

AI Driving

A mobility operating system cannot be privately built, it

must be open and governed by cities, according to the

Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADoT).

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show 2019 in Las

Vegas, LADoT general manager Seleta Reynolds described

how the authority had published specifications to manage

scooters following what she described as an “explosion of

private companies”.

She explained that the first bucket of application programming

interfaces (API) provides consistent ways for companies to

alk to cities and share information with them. The second

bucket of that code puts the LADoT into the product workflow

of those communities.

“We are not tapping them on the shoulders and asking them

for more data sets; instead we are delivering services that

we already deliver today. Eventually, it would be great if we

had a creative set of pricing tools, but we can start at the kerb,”

Reynolds added.

At the same CES session, ‘Creating Seamlessly Integrated,

Connected Mobility Operating Systems’, Scott Corwin, future

of mobility practice leader at Deloitte, warned that a completely

open system where people contribute on their own would attract

small players over big ones - which leaves the question of how

to get to scale.

Happy Birthday

For the first time in many years I am actually home for my wife's birthday and I am not in Las Vegas for CES!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, beautiful "child bride".

CES Keynote

CES 2019 officially began on Tuesday, with Consumer

Technology Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro

and CES Executive Vice President Karen Chupka highlighting

the rise of smart cities, artificial intelligence (AI), 5G, and

health tech at this year's show in their opening keynote address.

"Every company is or is becoming a tech company," Shapiro

said. This year's 4,500 exhibitors includes representatives

from every major and emerging industry across 155 countries,

regions, and territories, including companies like John Deere,

Proctor and Gamble, and Raytheon that are integrating

technology into their products and services.

"The only certainty about the future is disruption," Shapiro

said. The pace of technological change is accelerating faster

than anything we've ever experienced, and tech powers

everything we do, he added. This requires us to begin to

think horizontally to how tech can power an entire ecosystem,

from homes to cities to countries, and governments to create

innovation-friendly work and regulatory environments,

Shapiro said.

CES 2019 News

There’s a lot to digest coming out of the first full Media

Day here in Las Vegas for CES 2019, but the one thing

that keeps replaying in my mind is a simple statistic that

was delivered during the TCL keynote on Monday afternoon.

During its press conference, the company highlighted a

shocking piece of information related to TV sales in the U.S.

Specifically, according to TCL’s data, 99 percent of all TVs

that were shipped last year were in the sub-$2,000 price

range. So, on the flip side of that, that means a mere 1

percent of the total shipment volume of TVs in 2018 cost

more than $2,000.

That’s an incredibly important statistic to the consumer

electronics retailer for a number of reasons—namely in that it

confirms our long held belief that consumers hunt for deals on

TVs. But that statistic should also catch the eyes and ears of

TV manufacturers around the globe, who, according to that

data, seem to be out of touch with the mass market. And

nowhere is that more evident than with the number of 8K TV

announcements that were made here.

Coming into CES 2019, we expected to see and hear a great

deal about 8K TVs. And Monday’s Media Day extravaganza

proved us absolutely correct with big names like LG, Samsung,

TCL, and Sony all rolled out their 8K solutions to the public. But

we all know how this is going to go because we’ve all seen and

been through this exact same situation with 4K TVs. Only now it

feels like the industry is getting even further ahead of itself.

Don’t get me wrong, 8K TVs are absolutely gorgeous and will

help push screen sizes in the home beyond what we’d think to

be reasonable—we’re getting close to hitting that triple-digit

mark with these sets, with Samsung checking in with a 98-inch

TV introduction later this year. The video performance of these

TVs is unconscionable. The images pop off of the screen and

make you feel like you could just dive into whatever it is you’re

Watching.

But all we’ve been able to watch from a native 8K-content

perspective so far has been demo reels designed for those TVs.

And that very fact speaks to the larger issue with these

introductions, in that 8K content is so far behind the curve right

now. Each brand used their own technical jargon to describe

how their forthcoming product will expertly upscale any and all

content to make what you’re watching look like 8K. But let’s be

real, it’s not 8K and never will be 8K quality.